A police station.

(Illustration) -

Clément Follain / 20 Minutes

  • Awkwardness, provocation or openly racist message?

    A police commissioner in Plaisir has been suspended for sending a controversial greeting card to say the least.

  • The police force is seized, but no criminal investigation has, on the other hand, been opened, specifies the parquet floor of Versailles.

  • Originally, the cartoon in question, which dates from 2015, aimed to denounce police violence in the United States.

Awkwardness, provocation or openly racist message?

On Saturday, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin announced the suspension of a police commissioner from the district of Plaisir, in the Yvelines, after sending a greeting card, to say the least, controversial: we see a white policeman leaning against his vehicle throwing at a black man: "Come closer.

My taser recharges on the cigarette lighter.

"

In office since April 2018, after having been at the head of the departmental security of Montargis then of Orleans, the man was heard Friday by the police, the IGPN.

No criminal investigation has, however, been opened, specifies the Versailles prosecutor's office.

As soon as I learned of this "greeting card", the General Inspectorate of the National Police was seized and already heard this commissioner yesterday.

I suspended it as a precaution.

pic.twitter.com/HKtXjVNkOO

- Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) January 9, 2021

"The case came back to us at the beginning of the week by recipients of the greeting card and was immediately taken very seriously", confides a source within the national police.

The letter was sent to the heads of service and to the police authorities of the whole department on behalf of the commissioner but also of all "the police officers of the district".

What has had the gift of annoying - the term is weak - more than one.

“Our colleagues were extremely annoyed to be associated with this process for which they had obviously not been consulted,” insists a local union source.

And to clarify: "It is to add fuel to the fire on a very sensitive subject, racism in the police.

It is absolutely incomprehensible.

"

A difficult message to interpret

What message did this commissioner want to deliver?

Originally, the cartoon, which dates from 2015, aimed to denounce police violence in the United States.

"I regret that some see it as a racist drawing," commented on his blog the author of the drawing, Wingtz.

This is a caricature which shows that the American police officers have an awful facility to draw their taser, or worse, when it comes to intervening with the black population.

The following question therefore arises: is a caricature on racism racist?

(you have 2 hours).

The illustrator nevertheless clarified that he had never given his authorization for it to be resumed.

Until now, this experienced commissioner had, according to our information, never been talked about.

He was not, however, unanimous within his teams.

“Clear” and “distant”, according to some, “quick to request disciplinary investigations into anything and everything”, according to others.

All agree, however, that he had never made racist remarks or behaved suspiciously.

The protective suspension could run for four months.

At the end of this, the commissioner will go before the disciplinary council of the national police, which will determine a possible sanction.

Society

Yvelines: A police commissioner suspended after a controversial greeting card

World

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  • Society

  • Paris

  • Racism

  • Police violence